Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review # 31: Kinslayer

Kinslayer
The Lotus War, Book 2

Author: Jay Kristoff
Pages: 464
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Read: August 19-23, 2013
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review
Recommended by: Lynn

Description from Goodreads:
A SHATTERED EMPIRE
The mad Shōgun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation’s broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion simultaneously – by endorsing a new Shōgun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY
Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts is swelling beyond her power to control. Along with Buruu, Yukiko’s anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo’s clutches. But Kin has his own secrets, and is haunted by visions of a future he’d rather die than see realized.

A GATHERING STORM
Kagé assassins lurk within the Shōgun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A waif from Kigen’s gutters begins a friendship that could undo the entire empire. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, amongst islands of black glass, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat.

The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

Previous Books in Series:
1: Stormdancer

First Sentence: "Now witness the end of the beginning."

Review:
Last year, I was really blown away by Jay Kristoff's debut, Stormdancer. Though this often isn't the case, I'm actually more impressed with the sequel. This does seem to have been a trend lately, and I do hope it continues, especially if the book world is going to continue to be overrun with series. But I digress. Kinslayer is darker, creepier, and more intense than its predecessor. If you're one of those people who thinks characters meeting gruesome ends is a necessity in epic works, get excited, because Jay Kristoff has a real flair for murdering his characters in nasty ways.

The one weakness Stormdancer had, if it can be counted as one, for me was that it had that typical fantasy slowness at the beginning. Building a world takes time, and characterization took a back seat while that happened. In Kinslayer, the world's already built, so the action kicks off right from the start. Of course, Kristoff does lull you into a nice little unsuspecting place by not doing anything particularly cruel in the first half, and then he pounces on your hear and tears it to shreds. But we'll come back to that.

In the opening, we spend some time with Yukiko and Buruu, who remains magnificent. Yukiko on the other hand, well, girl's not doing so hot. The Kenning has really amped up, and is inducing serious headaches and bleeds out of facial orifices. To silence the voices, she's got a drinking problem. Also, Yukiko's fiercely angry and desirous of vengeance, because, well, she was scorned and apparently that guy still has ways to mess with her. Basically, Yukiko's not heroic. She's not a role model. She's not particularly likable. While this will no doubt be tough for a lot of readers to fathom, I thought it was a nice change of pace from more saintly heroines. Kristoff's world is one where even the good guys have a lot of the dark side in them.

Introducing new characters can be tricky, and often backfires. In such large casts, it's hard enough to keep everyone straight, though, thankfully, there's a handy dandy guide at the opening of the novel that lists the pertinent cast members, which totally saved me. Actually, in this case, I love the new additions to the cast. Hana is probably my second favorite human character. She's on the lowest rung of society, fit, literally, only to carry shit, which she does in the palace. One-eyed and spat upon, she still dreams and dares, having joined the rebellion. I also love her brother Yoshi and his boyfriend Jurou. The healthiest relationship (which may not be that healthy, but let's remember how Jay Kristoff hates happiness) is a gay one, which gives me joy. Momentarily. Until Kristoff stomps on that joy.

Kristoff is also doing some interesting things evolving the characters we knew from the first book. The character arcs are really impressive. Kin shows signs of doing something intense in book three, which could be for good or for ill and the fact that I have to wait forever to find out is frustrating. Aisha has a part to play, and it is intense. My new favorite (human) character, though, is Michi, who we didn't really get to see in action, and, oh man, is it a thing of beauty. She's way more lethal than Yukiko, who, let's face it, mostly has animals do the work for her. Again, I like that, though Yukiko's the figurehead, she's really not any sort of savior; other people are doing the bulk of the work. Of course, one of my favorite animal characters bit the dust. THANKS FOR THAT SCARRING PAIN, JAY.

The plot of Kinslayer moves a bit slowly, but if you wait for it there's some crazy stuff going down. Some things caught me entirely off guard, and now I just have to wait and find out what happens. There's a bit of a second book element in that most of the happenings here are clearly moving the players into place for the epic, bloody showdown to come. Still, I don't feel like Kristoff was just biding his time and I was never bored, so I really don't mind that. Some of Yukiko's journey does seem a bit out of place, but I suspect that something that happened there will become absolutely crucial, so, again, really not an issue for me.

Kinslayer is intense and heart-punching. Are you ready? Probably not. Will you venture into the storm anyway? I think you should.

Rating: 5/5

Favorite Quote:

"Look, I know that might make me a bitch, but at least I'm not a stupid bitch."

---

Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. This actually wasn't going to be next book, but it's jumping to the top of the list, so I could gift the ARC to another blogger, but then I learned Michelle doesn't sign on Saturdays because of the sabbath. So I bought her a copy but I'd already started it. Whatever, it's all made up and the order doesn't matter.

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out the following form with a suggestion! For more details, check this post.

Review: Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s

Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan
Pages: 384
Publisher: Dial
Publication Date: August 29, 2013
Read: August 20-22, 2013
Source: ARC from BEA

Description from Goodreads:
In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family.

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.

First Sentence: "We sit together outside the Fosters Freeze at a sea-green, metal picnic table."

Review:

Gah, the adorableness of this book. Middle grades can be so good, because they give that focus on family so often wanting from YA, and I just love the family of colorful characters brought together here. Counting by 7s is an enchanting middle grade novel with a lot of heart.

One of my favorite stories to see in fiction, aside from a slow burn hate to love relationship is that of a family forming out of people who aren't necessarily related. Sure, a lot of people love their birth families, but just because you're not related to someone it doesn't preclude them being your family. The connections between people, what makes a familial bond, has very little to do with blood, and more to do with supporting and motivating one another. This message is one that I find so important.

Willow Chance is, as the blurb says, a genius. She's smart to the degree that she has difficulty interacting with other people, because she cannot fathom why they do not find the intricacies of gardening or language or multiples of seven fascinating. Middle school proves a torture, because no one wants to hang out with the weird girl who's dressed like a janitor (to blend in with nature, you see). To make matters worse, she aces a test and is accused of cheating. Because of that, she's sent to counseling with the worst counselor ever: Dell Duke.

What Dell discovers is that Willow is not a cheater or a troublemaker, because he gives her SAT tests and she aces them all. He also watches her learn Vietnamese over the course of a couple of weeks. The girl's brilliant. Dell becomes a bit obsessed, in a professional way not a creepy way, with Willow and feels the odd urge to try to help. Then both of her parents (not her biological ones either) die, leaving her at the mercy of the foster system again.

Spontaneously, another family, the son of which is also forced to go to counseling with Dell, adopts Willow and they form this strange little family. The book is just so touching. They all are made better by their relationship, even though there are so many hardships. There's a lot of diversity and self-improvement and emotion. Over the course of the book, I came to care for all of them, even Dell, which I did not expect.

There are a lot of middle grade books about genius children or at least much smarter than average children. To be frank, these are my favorite ones, because I like children that act more maturely. Though Willow's well-read and clever, her character definitely does read convincingly like a twelve-year-old. The narrative voice is fabulous and convincing. Willow just jumps right off the page and into your head.

However, much as I love the narrative voice and the emotions, the writing did leave me wanting. The problem is that, while I love the way Willow's perspective is done, we don't just get her perspective. A drifting third person limited interrupts. That could be fine, except for the fact that the third person perspective reads EXACTLY LIKE WILLOW'S. Also, Willow's perspective in the first chapter has a sort of talking to the audience flair, so the third person sections really don't fit with that sort of style.

A touchingly emotional middle grade, Counting by 7s is one that I recommend rather highly. I'll definitely be looking to try more of Sloan's work, even if I wasn't entirely pleased with the perspectives in this work.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"It said I was 'highly gifted.'
     Are people 'lowly gifted'?
    Or 'medium gifted'?
    Or just 'gifted'? It's possible that all labels are curses. Unless they are on cleaning products.
     Because in my opinion its not really a great idea to see people as one thing.
     Every person has lots of ingredients to make them into what is always a one-of-a-kind creation."

Review: Love in the Time of Global Warming

Love in the Time of Global Warming

Author: Francesca Lia Block
Pages: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
Read: August 15-16, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher

Description from Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything—her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy.

In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.

First Sentence: "The building has gold columns and a massive doorway, a mural depicting Giants, with small bodies sticking out of their mouths like cigarettes."

Review:

Let it not be said that I don't read with an open mind. There's a lot of talk on Goodreads and in the book blogging community about "hate reading" and whether or not one should do it. Deciding to read Love in the Time of Global Warming might have seemed a questionable choice, because I absolutely loathed with every fiber of my being the first and only Francesca Lia Block book that I read: Weetzie Bat. However, if I didn't risk possibly hating this one and feeling stupid for wasting my time or being deemed a "hate reader," I wouldn't have gotten to experience this amazing book. Even going into a book fearing the worst, there's a chance that you will be unexpectedly swept off your feet, and I've seen this happen to pretty much every blogger I know. So, surprisingly enough to me and to Bekka of Pretty Deadly Reviews who convinced me to read Love in the Time of Global Warming, I kind of loved this book.

My issue with Weetzie Bat was that the book read like I'd been unwilling forced into some sort of drug trip, which is not my thing in the slightest. The book is crazy and the writing annoyed me to no end. Love in the Time of Global Warming is definitely incredibly odd and a little bit crazy, but, for some reason, one I can't really put my finger on except to say that it just sort of comes together perfectly, this one worked for me.

The writing, while still more poetic and off the wall then I generally like, is this lyrical prose that fits perfectly with the story. Block makes excellent use of imagery and achieves a style that hearkens back to Homer's Odyssey while still being totally her own, which I really admire, because it's so tough to achieve.

What I really love about Love in the Time of Global Warming is that it's this genre mash up of awesomeness. Block blends together mythology, science fiction, post-apocalyptic, and magical realism into a book that should come out an incomprehensible mess, and may for some readers, but combined to be this brilliant, strange utterly unique little book for me.

There's this real blend of science fiction/post-apocalyptic with the retelling elements. While some aspects are explained with science, like the giants, others are where the magical realism comes into play, like the lotuses. Personally, I love magical realism and the way that it brought everything together and really made this retelling possible in a world no longer populated by gods and goddesses in our cultural imagination.

In no way is Love in the Time of Global Warming a strict retelling, but Block manages to bring in quite a few of the major plot elements, and they're clearly recognizable. Even better, Block doesn't have the tendency to go on and on in endless descriptions like Homer does. Also, Block takes a story that's very patriarchal, with the only women vile seductresses or waiting at home for their men, and makes it an LGBT love story with a heroine, slyly named Penelope in a nod to the one awesome woman in Homer's work, instead of a hero. All of the main characters have LGBT leanings and they're all messed up, but ultimately likable people with more to them than what initially meets the eye. In some ways, the apocalypse is what frees them to be who they are, because the end of the world really puts life into perspective.

My only reservations are these: one personal and one more analytical. On a personal note, I didn't feel any real emotional connection, this not being so much a character-driven story. In fact, I'm amazed I liked it so much given that I'm such a character-based reader, however the writing and story really resonated and struck the perfect tone. Analytically, there was a little plot line about Pen's parents that I didn't really think was entirely necessary. I didn't remember this from The Odyssey, but apparently another account (as in not written by Homer), explains this little addition. While I can see why she did that, it felt rather out of place since not much really happened with regards to this small twist.

If you appreciate genre-bending novels, particularly those with magical realism, I urge you to give Love in the Time of Global Warming a try. It's a strange, unique book and won't be for everyone, but Francesca Lia Block has woven together something magical here.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"I sniff. 'What is it?'
     'Punch!' he laughs. 'I don't know. Something strong. We need something fucking strong, don't you think? The world actually ended. As in the apocalypse? We better have something strong.'"

Review: Solstice

Solstice

Author: P. J. Hoover
Pages: 384
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Read: June 17-19, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Piper's world is dying.

Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.

Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.

An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.

First Sentence: "Mom says, 'Watch the heat today.'"

Review:

There's a special kind of sadness reserved for a book that starts out well, that you think you're going to be best friends with, but which, instead, goes somewhere that your heart and mind can't embrace. For me, Solstice is one such book. For the first hundred pages, Solstice was heading for a 3.5-4 star rating, but then the twist and the romance happened. Though not for me, Solstice does have good qualities and will no doubt be pleasing to a slew of other readers.

The first hundred pages of Solstice are solid post-apocalyptic, though I wouldn't really call the book dystopian myself, though really what a dystopia is has really lost all meaning for me by this point. The world Hoover has created is an eerily possible future earth, one beset by global warming. In Piper's world, one hundred degrees Fahrenheit is a cool day in Austin, TX. Going outside requires sunscreen pills and cool misting sprays at all times. Water comes in two temperatures: warm and hot. Air conditioning is used to cool buildings down to the upper 80s or 90s - any more than that is illegal. Governments around the world try to fix the heat with science, but the attempts are not proving promising.

In these opening chapters, Piper is cool-headed, thoughtful, and obedient to her overbearing mother. Other students look to her for advice and instructions during crises. Because of her mother's restrictions, she does feel a bit lonely, and wishes she were allowed to date like the other kids, especially since she's legally an adult at 18. For this reason, I wasn't bothered by her intense immediate attraction to the hot new boy at school who just happened to sit next to her in class and want to talk to her OR to the hot boy who came by her house claiming to be the son of one of her mother's colleagues. The girl has been toeing her mother's line for so long she was bound to crack eventually; she's entered her rebellious phase, as evidenced by the tattoo she gets with her best friend. That was all fine.

At this point, if you're concerned about spoilers, you may want to step away. I can't review this one without spoiling the big twist, because I have things I need to talk about to explain why my opinion changed about Solstice. The twist is discussed in the blurb above, but I generally ignore those and didn't know myself, so up to you.

Right around the one hundred page mark, Solstice becomes an entirely different book, a fantasy about Greek mythology. Unfortunately, the transition is marked with excruciatingly instalove-ridden romance, rather than action or good mythology. Hoover does bring the mythological elements to an interesting conclusion, but there was too much unfortunate romance before that got going that kept me from liking this book.

The romance elements have the unfortunate gender dynamics present in other young adult Persephone adaptations, like Abandon and The Goddess Test. Reese (Ares) and Shayne (Hades) are fighting for Piper's love, though she cannot figure out why (even though she's OBVIOUSLY Persephone from when the Greek myth stuff first starts, she won't figure that out until page 290). She instaloves (one week, people!) with Shayne, who refers to her as the "spoils" of his position in the Underworld and refuses to tell her anything, though, to be fair, there does end up being a reason for that later (though my opinion was set by the time I learned that). Whenever Piper gets near Reese, though, his intoxicating scent fills her with memories of their time together, fictional ones, and she cannot help making out with him. Only at the very end does she actually make any sort of informed choice about romance, mostly being led about by the men. The logical, thoughtful heroine of the beginning of the book disappears never to be seen again. Neither love interest ever gets personified beyond on nice strong guy and evil strong guy respectively.

Much as I can't personally get past the romance, I can appreciate the way that Hoover resolved everything. She does put an interesting twist on the relationship dynamics of the myth. Piper's relationship with her mother echoes the original tale, but puts a different spin on Demeter's desire to keep Persephone with her.

I'm torn on the resolution to the whole global warming plot of the beginning. Hoover does come back to that and deftly ties it into the mythology by explaining that it's always summer when Persephone's with her mother. That's pretty awesome on one level, but also really annoys me on a couple of others. From a mythology standpoint, I just don't think that her mother being happy would equal an increasingly hot summer, because it's not like the world was an arid desert until Persephone started spending six months in the Underworld every year. Also, I find the idea that global warming has been turned into a side effect of the squabbles of the gods, rather than of humans completely fucking up the planet, distasteful. I know it's just been done for the fictional value, but I still can't get completely behind it.

If, like me, you're not a fan of poorly characterized instalove romances, you may want to give Solstice a pass. However, if you're curious and not as easily frustrated by such things, there are a lot of cool things in Solstice for you to appreciate. I really like what Hoover did in theory, and I do think that she shows a lot of promise as an author; her writing is good and the concept is fantastic. Though Solstice didn't work for me, I'll be open to reading more of Hoover's books in the future.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Quote:

"'So you missed me?' He tilts his head and waits for my answer.
     I move my hand, scratching a different head. 'I missed your dog.'"

Review: Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself

Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself

Author: Alan Alda
Narrator: Alan Alda
Duration: 6 hrs, 1 min
Publisher: Random House Audio
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
On the heels of his acclaimed memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, beloved actor and bestselling author Alan Alda has written Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, an insightful and funny look at some of the impossible questions he’s asked himself over the years: What do I value? What, exactly, is the good life? (And what does that even mean?)

Picking up where his bestselling memoir left off–having been saved by emergency surgery after nearly dying on a mountaintop in Chile–Alda finds himself not only glad to be alive but searching for a way to squeeze the most juice out of his new life. Looking for a sense of meaning that would make this extra time count, he listens in on things he’s heard himself saying in private and in public at critical points in his life–from the turbulence of the sixties, to his first Broadway show, to the birth of his children, to the ache of September 11, and beyond. Reflecting on the transitions in his life and in all our lives, he notices that “doorways are where the truth is told,” and wonders if there’s one thing–art, activism, family, money, fame–that could lead to a “life of meaning.”

In a book that is candid, wise, and as questioning as it is incisive, Alda amuses and moves us with his unique and hilarious meditations on questions great and small. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself is another superb Alan Alda performance, as inspiring and entertaining as the man himself.

Review:

Though I should have been reading other books, I simply had to sit and listen to Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. My parents raised me to appreciate M*A*S*H, and so I've always had an interest in Alan Alda. Of course, as Alda discusses, celebrity is a strange thing, and celebrities often disappoint on closer inspection. I will probably never meet Alan Alda, so I can't say whether he would disappoint if I did meet him, but listening to this audiobook has only made me admire him more.

The title is a strange one, and means exactly what it says. In Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Alan Alda considers various speeches he gave throughout his life, such as commencements and eulogies. He looks back at what he said then and tries to boil down them down to what he really believes and what he really wants to pass on to people about living life. While initially skeptical about this construct, it proves to be an incredibly fascinating pursuit, as he learns from his past self.

No doubt this book will also lose him fans. Alan Alda is a very political man. He has very strong opinions on things like equal rights and the environment and the arms race. I happen to agree with him on pretty much all of this, so I appreciate his candor, but those staunchly on the other side of the spectrum will likely be offended.

Alda makes several basic observations and then looks at them again and again. Still, the book managed not to come across as repetitive, though it might seem that way to those less interested in continual philosophical musings. His thoughts on the divide between the humanities and science are especially compelling.

For those looking for an in depth look at Alan Alda's life, this is not the place to get it. He does mention his family quite often and famous friends too, but they are not the point of the book. They are sometimes illustrative of an argument he's trying to make, but this is not a biography. The subjects covered are those dealt with in speeches to a public audience, so he mostly skims the surface of private life.

If you read Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, I recommend the audio highly, because, hello, you can listen to Alan Alda. He has a unique and delightful voice, so immediately recognizable as him. He's a delight to listen to, and who better to tell his story than him?

Rating: 4/5

Review: Rootless

Rootless
Rootless, Book 1

Author: Chris Howard
Pages: 336
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Source: Purchased

Description from Goodreads:
17-year-old Banyan is a tree builder. Using scrap metal and salvaged junk, he creates forests for rich patrons who seek a reprieve from the desolate landscape. Although Banyan's never seen a real tree—they were destroyed more than a century ago—his father used to tell him stories about the Old World. But that was before his father was taken . . .

Everything changes when Banyan meets a woman with a strange tattoo—a clue to the whereabouts of the last living trees on earth, and he sets off across a wasteland from which few return. Those who make it past the pirates and poachers can't escape the locusts—the locusts that now feed on human flesh.

But Banyan isn't the only one looking for the trees, and he's running out of time. Unsure of whom to trust, he's forced to make an uneasy alliance with Alpha, an alluring, dangerous pirate with an agenda of her own. As they race towards a promised land that might only be a myth, Banyan makes shocking discoveries about his family, his past, and how far people will go to bring back the trees.

In this dazzling debut, Howard presents a disturbing world with uncanny similarities to our own. Like the forests Banyan seeks to rebuild, this visionary novel is both beautiful and haunting—full of images that will take permanent root in your mind . . . and forever change the way you think about nature.

First Sentence: "They figured me too young for a tree builder."

Review:

As happens from time to time, I've read a book that is wonderful, but that does not work perfectly for the kind of reader that I am. Rootless by Chris Howard is a true dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel set in a nightmare landscape. The writing is beautiful and the characters are unique. I definitely like Rootless and I'm very impressed by Howard's debut, but I'm too easily confused by science for it to be the perfect book for me.

First off, I want to praise Chris Howard's writing to the skies. The writing is beautiful, perfectly matched to Banyan and to the world itself. Howard manages to establish that Banyan speaks in dialect with the use of words like "reckon," but keeps it to a minimum. Thus, he clearly gets across the sound of the characters without making Rootless any less readable. Dialect done wrong is a miserable reading experience, and I think Howard takes a marvelous approach.

Howard builds from a pretty standard dystopian formula with the evil corporation GenTech, but the world itself is like nothing I've ever read before. The world has gone to seed in just about every way possible. Trees and animal life (except for humans and locusts) have died out. The only remaining food source is a genetically modified corn that the locusts cannot eat, which means the locusts have to settle for the only remaining dietary option: people. Man-eating bugs are pretty much my worst nightmare. There are also pirates, and a whole lot of other unscrupulous, cutthroat folks. In Rootless, characters really do suffer, and it's not all about the romance; people die in nasty ways, just as they should in a good post-apocalyptic.

Banyan works as a tree builder. What's a tree builder?, you might ask. Well, since the trees are gone, the landscape's a tad empty. Rich folks will pay to have trees built on their landscape. Banyan, as his father taught him, crafts trees out of metal. This is a very strange concept, but one that puts such a stark mental image of this world into my head. His cast of characters is just as memorably strange as the trees built out of metal.

As I mentioned previously, the world in Rootless is one in which countless things have gone wrong. Genetic modification of foodstuffs lead to stronger locusts, which lead to no trees. A lack of trees presents its own problems. The moon also came closer to the earth, which messed with the ocean. All of the non-human animals are gone. Everything that's left is controlled by a corporation, the only institution capable of making food without cannibalism. All of this was just way too much for me to process, and I spent a lot of time confused, trying to figure out why something happened and what repercussions it would have on society.

From interviews I've seen, I'm sure Howard has done his research and put tons of thought into everything, but he lost me. Actually, I had a similar problem with The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which is beloved of many people who understand science much better than I do. To tell you the hard truth, I was at best a mid-B range student in high school science. I know just enough to get things really wrong and muddled. Readers with more science background or less inclined to puzzle over things endlessly will likely not have this issue. Also, since Rootless is told from a first person perspective, the world building will likely become more clear as Banyan learns more.

Oh, one last thing, Howard is a HUGE Star Wars fan. It's all over his inspiration board on Pinterest, for example. His love of Star Wars really shines through. There are some very cleverly done references, which I, having been raised from a young age to be obsessed with the original trilogy (the only one that exists in my brain), loved. Watch out for those, Star Wars fans!

I highly recommend Rootless to readers who enjoy harder science fiction with a focus on world building and storytelling. Fans of Paolo Bacigalupi and Star Wars should especially take note.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"'Zion. Trees. You're talking about heaven, boy. We be heading to hell.'
     'I don't know,' I said. 'Could be one's really just the same as the other.'"

Review: Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green

Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green

Author: Helen Phillips
Pages: 304
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of When You Reach Me said this book is "brimming with surprises and grand adventure. Brave, smart, and full of heart, Madeline and Ruby are a gust of fresh air."

Mad's dad is the Bird Guy. He'll go anywhere to study birds. So when he's offered a bird-tracking job in Central America, his bags are packed and he's jungle bound.

But going bird tracking in the jungle and disappearing completely are very different things, and when the Very Strange and Incredibly Creepy Letter arrives, Mad can't shake the terrible feeling that her father is in trouble.

Roo, Mad's younger sister, is convinced that the letter is a coded message. And their mom is worried, because the letter doesn't sound like Dad at all. But Mad is sure it's a sign of something sinister.

The only way to get to the bottom of it is to go to Lava Bird Volcano and find their dad themselves. Though they never could have imagined what they're about to discover.

From new talent Helen Phillips, Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green is the story of what can happen when two sisters make some unusual friends, trust in each other, and bravely face a jungle of trouble all to bring their family back together.

First Sentence: "So here we are in this shaky little airplane high above the jungle, which is kind of (very) scary."

Review:

Oh, middle grade books, you are just so delightful. One of my goals this year is to read more of them, because I've had such good experiences with all of my middle grade selections. Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green is the latest success. Phillips' debut is enchanting, full of adventure, nature, and a little bit of magic.

For those who like to indulge wanderlust with fiction, Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green is a real treat. Set in the jungles of Central America, the descriptions are as lush and verdant as the landscape being described. Phillips captures both the beauty and the danger inherent in such a setting, from the poisonous bright-colored tree frogs to the daily monsoon-like rains. The descriptions bring this Central American jungle to life.

Using this setting, Phillips conveys important messages about modern society's treatment of the environment and extinction of natural species. In Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green, the two young heroines and Kyle, a new (cute) friend, team up to save a species of bird, the Lava-Throated Volcano Trogon, from final extinction. A Lazarus species, the LTVTs were already thought extinct once, but now they are being hunted to death for sinister purposes, and, for some reason, their father, a bird expert and lover, is involved. Phillips manages to get her environmental messages across organically, without any preaching.

My very favorite aspect of the story is the dose of magical realism that Helen Phillips added into the mix. La Lava, the plush resort Madeline and Ruby's father works for, is located next to an active volcano, one not believed to blow for another hundred years. However, this volcano's explosive tendencies correlate with the health of the LTVTs. If they die out, the volcano will explode. There are also these giant flowers that can be used as umbrellas if you push the right spot, and glowing mushrooms. These little magical touches really brought the story to life, adding a cinematic touch that middle graders will love.

Mad makes a rather unique heroine. Middle grade MCs tend to be funny and plucky kids, adventurous and brave. Mad, on the other hand, fears pretty much everything and envies the confidence and talents of her younger sister. Mad's jealousy of Roo does wear a bit thin, but I was so happy when Mad finally realized her own strengths. Roo does seem a little bit too magical and clever, though, so Mad's inferiority complex does make a bit of sense. For example, Roo picks up Spanish in just a couple days.

The plot follows pretty standard middle grade lines. Ruby and Mad's parents, while ordinarily loving and pleasant, have been made to act not like themselves. To restore their parents, Roo and Mad have to complete a quest, using ingenuity and determination. Along the way, Roo has a first crush. It's all very cute and empowering, if not anything out of the ordinary.

Helen Phillips transports you to another place and takes you on a journey through the jungles. Her skill at description and timely message make Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green a wonderful choice for middle grade readers (and older ones too).

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote:

"It used to be that whenever I felt sad or angry or jealous, Dad would explain that just a few little chemicals were creating the feeling. He said: Just a few little chemicals, no big deal, easy to ignore.
     He also said: Did you win the lottery?
     And I said: No.
     And he said: Yes you did! You won trillions of lotteries! First you won the lottery of the Big Bang, and then you won the lottery of evolution, and then you won the lottery of me and your mother being assigned to the same dorm in college, and then you won the lottery of our ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends being fools, and then you won the lottery of us falling in love and getting married. Not to mention the lottery of the United States of America and a loving middle-class family."

Review + Giveaway: Flight Behavior

Flight Behavior

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Pages: 448
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: November 6, 2012
Source: BEA/Publisher via TLC Book Tours

Description from Goodreads:
Set in a small town in Tennessee, about a young woman who happens upon a forested valley filled with silent red fire, and whose attempt to share the wonder and find an explanation throws her into a spiraling confrontation with her family, her church, her town, her continent, and finally the world at large.

First Sentence: "A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture."

Review:
I love Barbara Kingsolver. All of her books automatically go on my to-read list, because she's brilliant. One of the things I love about her is how unique her books are from one another. She writes different kind of characters in disparate environments and focuses on varying themes. I find it so impressive when authors can reinvent themselves so often. Flight Behavior is my fourth Kingsolver book. Unfortunately, unlike the others, this one failed to meet my expectations.

My first Kingsolver read was The Bean Trees, which centers around a girl desperate to get out of her small, hick town where most of the girls are pregnant before they even leave high school. She wants to be one of the ones to leave and never come back. Through some odd circumstances, she finds herself stuck raising a baby that's not hers, sort of falling into motherhood. The plot itself didn't have much appeal for me as a reader, but the book was utterly compelling and I loved it so much. Kingsolver's powerful writing and intriguing, quirky characters pulled me in despite myself.

In Flight Behavior, Kingsolver again focuses on a heroine who had dreams of escaping her hick town, but this one didn't make it. Dellarobia hoped to go to college, but wound up pregnant instead. Even worse, the baby boy died, leaving her stuck in a marriage with a man she doesn't respect and reliant on judgmental in-laws. Her unhappiness manifests itself in a wandering eye; she has had a number of crushes on men, flirted with the idea of an affair. The hook of the novel is when Dellarobia heads up the mountain to meet with one of her men and cheat on her husband. On her way, she sees the forest burning with butterflies, and interprets that as a sign from God that she needs to go back to her life and make good.

Dellarobia's life certainly is unfortunate, and it's such a shame that her promise was wasted on this small town, where kids only take two years of rudimentary math in school. Even the bright ones aren't given enough education to be able to get out of town. I feel for her, but I didn't connect with her or any of the other characters. In all of Kingsolver's previous works, I was held rapt in unfamiliar worlds by the power of the characters and the writing, but these characters simply failed to grab onto my heart and take hold.

Another problem too is that, while the writing is beautiful as always (and shows that you can not write in dialect but still achieve a southern feel), the story feels a bit like a combination of two of the Kingsolver books I'd previously read: The Bean Trees and Prodigal Summer. Revisiting old themes, while not what I know Kingsolver for, can be done well, but, in this case, it felt repetitive and less well done.

Flight Behavior feels like it was written not so much for the characters as to be the vehicle for a message: global warming is real and it's not just about changing temperatures. Now, of course, it's alright for books to have a moral, a message, but I don't like to feel like I'm being beat over the head with it or being talked down to.

The butterflies Dellarobia witnessed normally wintered in Mexico, but moved to her small town because of environmental changes and now the whole population of Monarch butterflies could be in danger of extinction. A lepidopterist comes to study them, and works with and teaches Dellarobia, highlighting her boredom with her husband and her desire for something bigger. Because of her rudimentary education, the reader receives both the scientific explanations for everything and the 'country' version, a cute little metaphor for everything that's happening. This felt a bit insulting to me, as though this setting was chosen to allow for global warming to be explained in a simplified way that the stupid disbelievers could fathom. Prodigal Summer also dealt with the importance of taking care of the environment, but did not make me feel so lectured.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but I'm disappointed to have not enjoyed a book by one of my favorite authors. Her writing is still gorgeous, but the book is massive, slow, and filled with a lot of minutiae about Dellarobia's life I could have done without. Surely others will appreciate this one (most of the reviews on Goodreads are highly flattering and NPR approves), but it fell flat with me.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'You do everything you can,' she said. 'And then, I guess, you do everything you can't. You keep doing, so your heart won't stop.'"

Giveaway:
Obviously this one didn't work for me, but Barbara Kingsolver is still to be experienced. I'm giving away my copy to one reader. US only, since I shall be shipping this rather heavy paperback. Just fill out THIS FORM and leave a comment by November 20th at midnight.

Cropduster - Pearl Jam

The Windup Girl

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Pages: 359
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits? And what happens when said bio-terrorism forces humanity to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man"( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these questions.

First Sentence: "'No! I don't want the mangosteen.'"

Review:
For years, I have been looking forward to reading this book. I did check it out from the library once and read a couple of pages, but I gave up and moved on to something else. I hoped that now, with a broader experience of dystopias, I might get into the story and appreciate its marvelousness. Sadly, I did not. Were I not incredibly stubborn, I would have DNFed this early on.

Tons of brilliant people that I have the utmost respect for love this novel. Honestly, they're smarter than I am, I expect, so it could be that I just don't have what it takes to fully appreciate The Windup Girl. That said, I can appreciate the depth and breadth of Bacigalupi's world building. Many novels feel sort of slapdash, as though some things have not really been though out at all, but every bit of this has obviously been fine-tuned and worked out with precision.

In fact, there is such focus on the world building that I occasionally felt rather like I was reading a newspaper or a text book on that period of history. The whole book was a description overload for me. Perhaps if I had an interest in science, I would apprecciate all of those details, but, with science always having been my least favorite subject, I had trouble focusing or caring.

In The Windup Girl, mankind has, through the constant genetic modification of food, created new diseases and is having difficulty producing food. Conglomerates that produce new disease-free strains essentially run the world. The Windup Girl takes place in Thailand, where Anderson Lake has been sent to investigate the appearance of fruits previously disappeared. They are hiding a seedbank and his company wants access. In addition to the science, there's a ton of politics, which also really is not my thing.

The Windup Girl follows a fairly significant cast of main characters, not a single one of whom I cared a fig about. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure whether I was supposed to like them or not. Were some of them protagonists and some antagonists? Other than Emiko, the windup girl, being a protagonist, I'm really not sure. One of the characters dies fairly early on and I had absolutely no reaction to his death. Was I supposed to feel sad? Was I supposed to be glad? I legitimately have no clue.

The title character, the windup girl, proved most interesting, but even her sections got more boring for me as the novel went on. Actually, I think the only reason I cared what happened to her was that I felt pity for her. As she gained in power, she seemed to need my sympathy less and I was able to focus on just how little personality she really has. Admittedly, this is not her fault, considering that she is an engineered human, made to obey.

While I have no doubt of Bacigalupi's great talent, this novel, at least, was not for me. I failed to have any sort of emotional reaction to this book whatsoever; I was just bored. I hope that his young adult dystopia, Ship Breaker, is more accessible. The Windup Girl will appeal to readers who delight in detailed world building.

Favorite Quote: "'Sex and hypocrisy. They go together like coffee and cream.'"

"Light green to green, dark green, brown..
Every life is falling down
Brown to black, it's coming back
Dies to be part of the ground
Seed to seedling, root to stem"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

The Farmer's Frolic - Gaelic Storm

Home to Woefield

Author: Susan Juby
Pages: 315
ARC Acquired From: HarperCollins via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Prudence wants to save the world from carbon emissions and global warming. She recycles and only eats organic food; she puts up solar panels (or has her boyfriend do it). The boyfriend is not as much into the green thing; in fact, it drives him crazy. After he leaves, Prudence learns that her uncle has passed on and left her his farm. Clearly, this is fate. She will go out to a beautiful farm and have a booming organic farm going before a few months are up. Of course, she's never seen Woefield, which is falling apart, has rocky soil and is already in debt. Her eccentric help might even make things more difficult: Earl, the gruff farm hand, Seth, an alcoholic with an allergy to work and sunlight, and Sara, a young girl obsessed with chickens and the rapture.

Review:
Home to Woefield is the story of a ragtag group of crazy folks trying to figure out how best to live their lives. The story is told from the perspectives of all four of the people who come to view Woefield as home. Juby really made each voice sound unique. A lot of authors try to use multiple perspectives and fail, because each character sounds exactly the same, but not Juby. She also made me feel interest in each of the people, even though, when I think about it, I didn't particularly like any of them all that much. That takes talent.

The group's misadventures are definitely humorous. Four people who know nothing about sheep trying to take care of a depressed one can result in some serious hijinks. That poor sheep. Of course, there's also Alec Baldwin the rooster (seriously, if Alec Baldwin were a rooster, this is how he would be...don't tell me you're not intrigued).

This is a quick, fun read. Juby does the group of misfits plot perfectly. Home to Woefield came out this week, so check for it at your local bookstore or library.

Out in the Country - Three Dog Night

Trickster's Girl
Raven Duet, Book 1

Author: Hilari Bell
Genre: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 288
ARC Acquired From: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Net Galley

Brief Summary:
Since Kelsa's dad passed away from cancer, she has felt a bit hopeless. She has trouble connecting to her mother and is, unsurprisingly, quite sad. Out of the blue, a guy approaches her, who appears to be a teen, and asks her to go on a quest to steal a medicine man's pouch from a museum and heal the ley lines in the northern U.S. and Canada with it. Kelsa, quite logically, is freaked out and says in no uncertain terms that she wants no part of this business. He keeps showing up everywhere she goes though and shows her how he can turn into a bird, a raven. His name, as much as he has one, is Raven. His persistence pays off and she agrees to help him save the ley lines, because she hopes that that will halt the tree plague and maybe lessen occurrences of cancer.

Review:
Trickster's Girl is not like the average young adult fantasy. For one thing, there's no romance. The whole book is very focused on the quest and on saving the environment. Although Raven is hot, he is demonstrably not human.

Similarly, Kelsa does not constantly rely on him to save her. She is no Bella Swan, constantly tripping and needing to be carried. He saves her sometimes, but there are even more times where she saves herself or she saves him. I really loved that aspect of Trickster's Girl. Kelsa doesn't kick ass; she's a normal girl, but she can take care of herself. She makes a lot of the big decisions and reacts maturely to most of the situations in which she finds herself. Kelsa is, despite the running away from home to troop around a couple countries with a supernatural guy she barely knows, a fairly good role model.

The best part for me was the view into the future Bell has created here. The book is set a minimum of 85 years in the future, as Kelsa sees graffiti from 2094. America is, unsurprisingly, a bit different. There are some cool new technologies, like cars that hover a little bit off the ground and electric vehicles. On the converse side, there are numerous references to the damage to the environment done by humans, such as the bioplague wiping out the rainforest in South America. One really cool aspect is the description of how the new swear words developed, so watch for that. Also some dystopian elements, which I loved of course!

The quest itself is a neat idea, what with the environmental impact and all of that. Still, the way she healed the ley line was so incredibly lame. She would toss a pinch of dust and recite an incantation/ode to some element of nature: glaciers, trees, animals, etc. This does pay homage to the medicine man and perhaps resemble an Indian ritual of some sort (I confess that I do not know), but, either way, the incantations are super stupid. They just don't seem earth-changing.

The writing of the book was quite good, except for the aforementioned incantations and Bell's repetitiveness with regards to Kelsa's opinions of Raven. A sequel is in the works, currently titled Traitor's Son, for which I will be on the lookout.

"Before the breathin' air is gone
Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime
Out where the rivers like to run
I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'

Whenever I feel them closing in on me
Or need a bit of room to move
When life becomes too fast, I find relief at last
Out in the country"